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The present invention relates to graphical fills, and more particularly, to automatic graphical fills in an electronic document.
Since the dawn of civilization, people have relied on graphic illustrations to communicate information. With the widespread availability of computers, the process of creating graphic illustrations has progressed from manual drafting techniques to computer-aided techniques. Although certain early computer graphics programs or application software can generate professional graphics in a fraction of the time required for hand drawn graphics, these computer programs can be quite complicated and/or difficult to use. In addition to requiring computer proficiency, many first generation computer graphics programs may require users to have artistic abilities and computer skill in order to generate professional illustrations. Thus, users of these programs may have to spend hours or days practicing with the system before becoming proficient in generating acceptable graphics.
One capability needed to enhance the appearance of the graphics in a document is the ability to change, modify and/or create certain areas in the document. Modem graphics programs provide tools such as painting tools and fill commands to change the color of pixels, and to modify and create areas in his or her document. These programs support certain fill capabilities to create gradual transitions between two or more colors, including linear, radial, angular, reflected or diamond gradient fills. A linear gradient fill creates a gradient from one point to another in a straight line. A radial gradient fill creates a gradient from a starting point to an ending point in a circular pattern. An angular gradient fill creates a gradient fill in a counterclockwise sweep around a starting point. A reflected gradient fill creates a gradient using symmetric linear gradients on either side of the starting point. Finally, a diamond gradient fill creates a gradient from a starting point outward in a diamond pattern, with the ending point defining one comer of the diamond.
At present, the user is limited in his or her options when the user desires to create designs with a wide range of color fills and gradient fills. These factors may prevent graphics from being used to present information when such a presentation would be the best way to communicate the information. For color image editing and manipulation, color or gradient fill operations should be flexible, and color manipulation of tints, shades and tones needs to be easy to apply for the graphic artist.
In one aspect, a computer-implemented method generates a graphic fill by selecting a tint curve and a tint vector for a graphical object; and applying a tint transform defined by the tint curve and vector to a fill of the graphical object.
Implementations of the method may include one or more of the following. The curve can be a spline. The tint curve can be adjusted to create a new visual effect. An effective value for the tint vector can be computed. The effective value for the tint vector can be expressed as one or more transcendental functions such as sine and cosine functions. The fill of the graphical object can have one or more color components. In this case, the method can apply the tint to the one or more color components of the object. The color components include red, green and blue. The method can adjust the brightness of the graphical object by adjusting the tint curve. Further, the direction of the tint vector can be adjusted to vary a fill pattern. The object can be an image region and the fill can be pixels of the image region. An anchor having two ends can be placed to allow users to edit the curve. The anchor can be transformed when the object is transformed, or can remain static when the object is transformed.
In a second aspect, a computer-implemented method generates a graphic fill by selecting a graphical object; applying a color gradient fill to the graphical object; creating a tint curve; and applying a tint transform defined by the tint curve and vector to the fill of a graphical object.
Advantages of the invention include one or more of the following. The tint transformation method adds a new dimension to currently available gradient or color fills and can generate fills that cannot be generated by current gradient/color fills. The use of tint transformation method makes opens new possibilities for design professionals. The tint transformation method allows the user to change brightness for the entire image or a portion thereof. Further, the tint transformation method modifies tint values at different parts of the fill in a controlled manner to generate visually interesting fills. The same gradient/color fill can generate multiple patterns when the tint transformation method is applied at different angles. Further, these powerful capabilities are provided with an intuitive, easy to learn interface. Thus, the method generates pleasing color patterns with a minimal amount of user time.